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Learning astronomy through archaeology

oriel36 · 2020-11-21 07:42:03

What is certain is that the people in remote antiquity had a wonderful sense of timekeeping hence the great monuments scattered throughout the countryside. They also had such a subtle understanding of the changes throughout the seasons so although a lot is attributed to the culture of the Celts, observations show that they…

21-11-2020 8:42am

#1

oriel36

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What is certain is that the people in remote antiquity had a wonderful sense of timekeeping hence the great monuments scattered throughout the countryside. They also had such a subtle understanding of the changes throughout the seasons so although a lot is attributed to the culture of the Celts, observations show that they really belong to the people who built Newgrange and Knowth.

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ireland/dublin?month=9&year=2020

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ireland/dublin?month=12&year=2020

The roofbox of Newgrange would be worthless on the Equinoxes due to the rule of twelfths where the declination and the seasonal changes in the transition of daylight in summer to darkness in winter are most rapid around the Equinoxes and least at the Solstices. For people who knew how to work the tides in transporting large kerbstones up the Boyne from the quarry in Clogherhead, it was no great stretch for them to apply the principle that tides change fastest in the middle of low and high tide and slowest at ebb tide -

https://www.surfertoday.com/images/jamp/page/ruleoftwelfths.jpg

The people who are most likely to appreciate the reasoning the builders used to create these magnificent structures are those who don't try to retrofit flawed contemporary perspectives into their monuments. It is also a wonderful way to come to understand the birth of timekeeping along with the great planetary cycles to which we are bound.

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